The American Apiculturist. 



% loxtrnal htboiitH to ^dmii^t anb Uratlttal gei^kceptng. 



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Published Monthly. S. M. Locke & Co., Publishers & Prop'rs. 



VOL. III. WENHAM, MASS., OCTOBER 15, 1885. 



No. 10. 



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OBSERVATIONS UPON 

 DRONES. 



By L. L. Langstroth. 



Bevan says that the drone hatches 

 on the 24th or 25th day after the 

 egg is laid. I know of nothing more 

 definite on this point. 



To get more precisely the facts, 

 on the 1 6th day of last July, a drone- 

 comb was put, at 7 A. M., centrally 

 in a strong colony, which had been 

 fed for several days, as the drones 

 were being expelled from many hives. 

 At 9 A. M. the queen was found on 

 that comb, having laid three eggs. 

 She had just begun laying. At 9 A. m., 

 on July 1 7, it was removed to a 

 strong colony, without queen, eggs 

 or larvae. On July 27, many cells 

 20 



were capped, and on July 28, at 2 

 p. M., some 200 were capped, many 

 eggs having, for some cause, disap- 

 peared. On Aug. 9, none had 

 hatched. On Aug. 10 examinations 

 were made every hoar. At %.yit 

 p. M. none had crawled out ; at 6j^o 

 two had hatched, and a third was 

 hatching. If these drones came 

 from the first eggs laid, they took 

 about 25 days and 8J- hours to de- 

 velop. 



At 6 A. M., on Aug. II, many more 

 had hatched, and at 6 a. m., on Aug. 

 12, all but 17 had hatched. At 6.30 

 p. M. all but 2 had hatched, and at 

 6.30 A. M. of Aug. 13, the last one 

 was found with the cap off, trying to 

 crawl out ; it was strong and perfect. 

 Now, if the egg producing this drone 

 was laid just before the comb was 

 removed, then it took nearly 2 7 days 

 to mature. 



During the whole time of these ob- 

 servations, the weather was of the 

 most favorable kind — the thermome- 

 ter ranging nearly every day above 

 80° Fahr., and being only once as 

 low as 62°. The colony was kept in 

 good heart by daily feeding, and I 

 can think of nothing which could 

 have retarded in the least the devel- 

 opment of these drones, unless pos- 

 sibly the fact that from so many of 

 the eggs having disappeared, they 

 were not as compact in the comb as 

 (217) 



